‘Self-Portrait’

This piece started with me endeavoring to work in a deliberately more intuitive and organic way, relying less on intellect than I am usually comfortable with. As it progressed it was apparent that I had unwittingly created a painful portrait of my own subconscious, as well as a sort of art-world satire. There are various codified elements (as well as visually repeated riffs of shape and category), some recognisable by art fans (e.g., deliberate nods to Hirst and Bourgeouis), some more reliant on personal knowledge of me. As it transpired, even for non-art-lovers who’d never met me, it was quite a visceral piece – bizarre and grotesque elements of a psyche, compartmentalized and rendered. Unfortunately it’s very difficult to get a sense of it out-of-situ, with just these few pictures.